Morning journal and courier., 1887-06-25

CORRESPONDENCE.
Back In Parfs-About Some French
Hotels-The Towers at Conef and
LOches

Back In Paris-About Some French
Hotels-The Towers at Conef and
Loches
HOTEL MEURICE, PARIS, June s.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER
Of course it is raining; and of course it is
still so cold that you are shivering with the
francs 6rer But there is great consolation
in being once more in a hotel where things
regarded by the Anglo-Saxon as absolute in
dispensables of decent living are not sneered
at as affectations or termed superhuities.
The hotels of the Loire are not quite so bad
as those of Normandy, but they are bad
enough. The proprietor of the Hotel de
rUnivers at Tours has fairly cleaned his es-
tablishment and recognized the peculiarities
of English and American taste. The hotels
at Anger and Saumur might be worse, but at
the hotels in Orleans, Blois, Chirion, Lorche
and everywhere else where have been there
is not the faintest recognition of desire to
be clean. Murray, of the hotels of Blois,
writes, ''H. de Blois, nearest the chateau,
good and comfortable" 1t is the nearest ho-
tel to the chateau, but in the rest of the
clause Murray is either malicious an ac
cidental liar. My room, though on the first
floor and front, was awfully filthy. A bunch
of fresh hay in New England barn would
have been delight in comparison. The table
d'hote was abominable. L was driven away
without having seen Chambord, though to
see it was my only object in being at Blois.
There are some things that are actually intol-
erable. Life in contact with them is not
worth living-is not liyable. A filthy dining
room filed with the worst of French odors;
a narrow seat, squeezed in between two
=, oIn nT1d
soup and an Enthusiastically decayed fish,
completed the combination that fired me like
a shot out of the house and out of the town.
If Orlean and Bourges must be visited let it
be done from Paris, and during the whole of
ones stay in the Loiret hold fast to the Ho-
tel de lUnivers at Tours. It can be done if
you will get up early.
To understand the mighty power of "Bar-
ons bold in days OF old" two points must be
visited-Conci and Loches. To state that a
tower is two hundred feet high, three hun
dred and twenty-five feet in circumference;
that its walls are thirty feet thick and
that Mazarin's gunpowder had but little eff
feet on the building, conveys an idea, but
you must sit down by the side of the donjon
and with your eyes reach up its towering
height. You must walk in through its walls
and when within feel the immensity of the
structure. You must go about among the
surrounding walls and supporting towers to
of the gigantic fortress. You must do 1T
yourself Every work of art that is grand
or beautiful must be allowed to make its
own impression in its own way, to speak its
own language. You must not be told about
it. You must not read too much about it..
You must see it, You must be affected by
the thing itself and not by the impressions
it may have made upon another's mind and
heart.
"Roi ne suys
Ne prince, ne due ne comte aussy.
''Je suys le sire de Concy,''
is hackneyed enough, but within that tower
you find yourself repeating the verses with
shouts and with exalted th1illings. And
when you get back to Paris you must and
will read everything you can get hold of
about the Concis Now right here for SOL
emn French fact. When returned I went
into one of the largest photograph shops and
asked to be shown photographs of the castle.
Can you believe it. The individual said he
had never heard of it, was sure it had never
been photographed, but he would inquire.
He has inquired and adheres to his state
ment that if there be such a castle it has
never been photographed. OF course he is
mistaken and of course I shall obtain what
desire This is good instance of the lack
of cooperation among business Frenchmen.
If shop-keeper has not the particular thing
you want he can't tell you where to get it.
It is not because he won't tell you, but he
can't; he doesn't know.
At Loches the donjon or principal tower is
square, not quite so high as the tower of Con-
ci, nor are its walls quite SO thick, but 1t has
other towers about it and its outermost walls
were of greater extent. No one capable of
receiving an impression can visit these two
places without receiving an entirely new i'm
preston as to the character and power of the
barons of the feudal ages. Nor can he help
feeling how incomplete must be the historic
instruction that fails to put the student in
face of these monuments, or fails to put be-
fore him the lifelike representations which
scientific photography nowadays so easily
produces. Will old Mother Yale never wake
up to the value of art in education?
At Loches your curiosity is all ablaze about
mighty chieftain of Anjon named Foulque
Nerra. The more you read about him the
better you see how exactly suited was the
fortress to so fierce and so redoubtable war
rior. 1t fitted him as crabs she'll fits the
crab, growing out of his exploits. Then
came Foulque Rechin, who was wild and cru
Ell, and who ruled all up and down the Loire
with savage grandeur. He had several wives
King Philip took fancy to one of them and
kept her ten years in Paris, having by her
sons and daughters. Then the Pope inter
fered and promulgated that the scandal had
been carried far enough, and that the King
must with his own hands restore the stolen
property. This he forthwith did, and on the
18th of October, HOG, the restitution was
effected at Anger The king and Rechin
supped together and the fair but frail piece
de-conviction served them both lovingly.
Then a step-son is killed. Then brother
who has been kept in prison for a score of
years is released and dies of joy. Finally
Rechin drinks himself to death. 'sMale in
cepit, pejus vixit, pessime vitam hniVit, :"
said the dominic at the funeral. After that
the piece-de conviction and her mixed pro-
geny have things their own way. Such were
the folks of Loches during the days of its
greatest power. Then the English and the
French fight for it. It is vital point In
French history all the way down to the rev.
olution Agnes Soul loved it, lived and died
in it, She and Charles VII graced it with
their affections. Louis XI used it as a pris
on, putting Olivier-le-Daim in charge and
bidding him let loose his EXTREMIST cruelty.
Here Sudories il Moro, unjustly deprived of
his dominions by Louis XII, was shut up for
cell and attention is called to pictures and
devices all about its walls, which the poor
old duke did with his own hands to beguile
his misery. For a few days in mid summer
for second or two a ray of the setting sun
could pierce his living tomb. Think how
the old duke must have prayed that those
days be bright and sunshiny. Buy "LHis-
toire de Donjon de Loches, par. NJ. Edmond
Gautier," and read about it, but first come
and see it. PERIANDER.
IMPATIENT
Do4;o,t I5;,.oX;,God 1,;4I, 5;oto.,,